The Six Costs That Matter Most

For a simple comparison, I think six costs tell most of the story:

Housing, Healthcare, Food, Everyday Transport, Fitness + Activities, and International Travel

Housing

Housing is the easiest place to start because it’s the biggest monthly expense.

In Los Angeles, we rented a two-bedroom apartment in Silver Lake. It was a good neighborhood, walkable by LA standards, and pretty centrally located. Rent was $3,000 a month, which got us a solid but not especially memorable apartment. Add two parking spaces, utilities, and renters’ insurance, and our total monthly housing cost was around $3,550.

In Lisbon, we rent a renovated two-bedroom apartment in Lapa. Rent is €1,900 a month. Add utilities and a cleaner twice a week, and the all-in monthly cost comes out to about €2,250, or roughly $2,600.

So compared with LA, we’re spending about $950 less per month on housing costs, while living in a place that feels special and works better for our day-to-day life.

Healthcare

In terms of contrast, healthcare is one of the most revealing categories.

In Los Angeles, between employer plan contributions, dental, and vision, we were spending about $1,100 a month on healthcare. 

In Portugal, we have private insurance through Médis. Together we pay about €280 a month, or roughly $325. That gives us access to private care, including GP visits, specialists, dental, and mental health. Most appointments cost us about €20 to €40 as a co-pay, and we can usually get seen quickly.

We also have access to the public system as we are now legal residents, but in practice, we mostly use private care because it’s affordable and efficient.

Food

Food is one of the categories where Lisbon feels better and cheaper at the same time.

In Los Angeles, our groceries for two usually ran about $900 a month. That was mostly Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, and generally caring about what we ate. Dining out two or three times a week added another $550 or so. So total food spending was usually around $1,450 a month.

In Lisbon, groceries are about €400 a month. We usually shop at Mercado de Campo de Ourique on Saturdays and stock up during the week at Continente. We also eat out more here than we did in LA, usually five or six times a week, and still our restaurant spending rarely goes over €500. Putting our total food spend at around €900 a month, or roughly $1,050.

Everyday Transportation

This is one of the biggest lifestyle changes, not just one of the biggest cost differences.

In Los Angeles, having two cars felt non-negotiable. Between payments, insurance, gas, and maintenance, we were spending around $1,300 to $1,500 a month. And that was just the financial side of it. It doesn’t include traffic, parking headaches, or the general annoyance of organizing your life around driving.

In Lisbon, we don’t own a car. We walk most places, use the metro for longer trips, and take Bolt (rideshare) when we don’t feel like walking or when the weather is bad. A monthly metro pass is €40. Most Bolts around the city are under €10. Altogether, our standard transportation costs are usually under €150 a month, or about $175.

Fitness and Activities

In Los Angeles, we were both Equinox members, which was about $250 a month each, so $500 total. One of us also had a membership to a pilates studio for another $180 a month. Bringing our fitness spending to about $680 a month.

In Lisbon, we’re both members at Club 7, which is around €130 a month per person. So together €260, or roughly $300. It has a gym, pool, spa, classes, tennis, padel, and a restaurant. We also spend about €120 a month total on padel between group coaching and court bookings. That brings our total fitness and activities spend to about $440 a month.

Flights Back to the U.S.

We go back to the U.S. on average three times a year: once for the holidays, once for a wedding or some other big event, and usually in the summer to see family. Round-trip flights from Lisbon to Los Angeles usually cost us somewhere between $800 and $1,400 per person, depending on the time of year.

When we lived in LA, the equivalent family trip was just a domestic flight, usually around $250 to $400 round trip per person.

So if we estimate three round trips a year for two people at about $1,100 per person, that’s roughly $6,600 a year, or about $550 a month when averaged out.

The breakdown

For us, Lisbon is cheaper than Los Angeles in the ways that matter most month to month. The savings are real, especially on healthcare, housing, transportation, and food. Living abroad creates its own costs, and the biggest one for us is the expense of regular flights back to the U.S. 

This comparison also reflects our life as it is now. It does not include the cost of raising kids, childcare or schooling, buying property, cross-border tax planning, visa and relocation expenses, or income differences between the two countries. It also excludes exchange rate changes and the one-time costs of getting established in a new place.

With that said, Lisbon still comes out ahead for us by a pretty wide margin. And maybe more importantly, it feels like less of our money disappears into systems that are frustrating, mandatory, or just draining. That alone has changed a lot about how day-to-day life feels.

We hope you found this comparison interesting, and thanks for following along with us.
Sarah & Alex

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